Be Mused Art » From the Sketchbook

A New Pirate Mercat Sketch

Melia — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:13:23 +0000

Still adjusting to this whole Linux thing. I think I like it, but some of my existing hardware doesn’t. Poor James is having to walk me through scanning every time, cause it doesn’t always recognize the scanner. And considering I want to scan things at 1am, it isn’t making for a happy husband.
Anyway, he did wake up and set things up to scan this whimsical little mercat. You will notice that the scan has more detail than I have been doing lately. This is because I found a larger sketchbook to work with, so more room for details. Tomorrow, I will have to start painting. Right now, I need to get to bed since I have an appointment in just 7 and a half hours, and much to do before that in the morning.

A sketch of some pretty fancy wings

Melia — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:33:00 +0000

Alright, it isn’t turning out anything like what I had in my head. But when I start thinking swirls, the drawings always seem to evolve into something like this. I am going to have to rely on my light table and some tracing paper to get the sketch symmetrical, but this gives a pretty good idea of what I am thinking. I am not sure what size this is going to be, but I suspect that it will have to be bigger than my poor scanner can handle and I will have to hire out the scanning just so I can show you folks what it will look like. And this is going to take some time to complete.

Where Ideas Come From

Melia — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:34:56 +0000

I am not sure about you, but when I see a piece of art that I like, one of the thoughts that goes through my mind is “Where did the artist get that idea?”. When I look at my own art a few weeks after it is finished, I am not sure where the idea first sparked. Usually it all comes together just as I am about to go to sleep at night, and I get right back up again and sketch it out- much to my husband’s annoyance. And many times when I decide to sit down to do a painting, I go through my many sketchbooks to find something that inspires me. By the time I get around to that point, I have no clue what inspired the first sketch. I do them having lunch, when I sit down at the Museum when my feet are hurting, sitting in the car waiting for my daughter to get out of school, mindlessly sketch while talking with friends. Lots of little bits of visuals and sounds seem to make their way onto the page as images.
But today something came together while I was on the phone with my great aunt. First I started using my pencil to follow the lines of a flier I picked up at the Dallas Museum of Art just keeping my hands busy while I talked. Then I picked up the sketchbook next to me and it became a Dryad. Just to give you an idea of the leaps I made while not really paying attention to my pencil, here is the flier and my sketch.

Flier from the Dallas Museum of Art

[caption id="attachment_716" align="alignright" width="182" caption="Dryad Sketch"][/caption]

My Lady’s Fairy Cat – Next Painting

Melia — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:19:52 +0000

Well here we have my latest drawing from my sketchbook. I went ahead and inked it in the sketchbook to make it easier to use my light box to transfer it to watercolor paper. Some cropping will happen, since it is going to be a 5×5″ watercolor painting.

Something Kinda Sexy

Melia — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:15:36 +0000

Well this is a bit different isn’t it. I think I must have been inspired by the Dr. Sketchy events that I have been attending. But here is a bit of sex appeal in fairy form for you all. I am trying to decide where to go from here. But it will probably have to wait until after Christmas is over, because way too much family time is planned for the next couple of days to be painting naked pictures.
I am really liking the flower clasps on those stockings and that hair piece is wonderful.

Sea Dragon and Mercat’s Quest

Melia — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:20:18 +0000

Well here is a sketch of the next project on my agenda. I hope you like it. Next is to put it on watercolor paper, ink it, decide on a background or border, and ink that, then the color! And with that starfish wand, I so have an excuse to break out the iridescent colors.

Mercat’s Bath – Sketch – WIP

Melia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:35:33 +0000

Well, I finally came up with an idea to paint today while picking up my daughter from school. Alas the sunlight and noise of the world has conspired against me and has made my headache worse. So instead of painting this fun little mercat in his bath, I shall go take another exedrin and try and sleep it off. Maybe tomorrow I will use a bit of ink and paint to bring to life this cute little fellow.

Mermaid and Seahorse WIP

Melia — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:30:21 +0000

This is all I have gotten done today on this. The border design became very detailed. I am only half done inking it and I still need to draw the scale pattern on the mercat’s tail.

And in case you are wondering where I got all the ideas for the wonderful sealife that is in the border- I have this beautiful book called Coral Seas by Steene that I used for inspiration for the coral and jelly fish and such.

A New Sketch – MerCat with Seahorse

Melia — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:13:18 +0000

This is about all I got done for Thursday. Hopefully on Friday I can transfer the design to watercolor paper. Although I am thinking that this one needs a fancy art nouveau style border to go with that tail and headdress.

Dr. Sketchy in Denton

Melia — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:52:59 +0000

I was lucky enough to get to go to a Dr. Sketchy event last night. Glam Amour was the model.
It has been many years since I was able to work from a live model. And my drawing abilities showed that. But significant improvements were made through the evening and I managed some decent sketches. I am so going next month, cause if I improve as much again as I did last night, I should have some pretty good drawings by the end of the evening.